


Operation Photo

by Lanceeselhombre



Series: Voltron Regression Stories [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crying, Gen, Infantilism, Mama!Allura, Non-Sexual Age Play, Pacifiers, This whole thing is literally Lance trying to take a picture of Keith, Tickle Fights, caregiver!Shiro, little!Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 14:30:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13813134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanceeselhombre/pseuds/Lanceeselhombre
Summary: The paladins have a scrapbook full of memories from when they’re little- and everyone is in it except Keith.Lance wants to change that.





	Operation Photo

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I need to mention that this camera is one of the old ones that prints a picture instead of saving it digitally. (But bc this is Voltron it can do both.)
> 
> [This was inspired by quite a few posts on @adventuresinomo ‘s side blog, but I’m not good at tech so idk how to credit her. Either way, thanks battery Xp]
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“We need to get some pictures of Keith.”

Hunk looked up from the piece of tech he’d been tinkering with, giving his best friend a questioning look. “Why do you say that?” He wondered, curious as to why the blue paladin brought it up so suddenly.

Lance turned the book he’d been looking through so Hunk could see it. “We have plenty of pictures of you, me, Pidge, and Shiro when we’re little.” He pointed out. On the visible pages, there was Lance dancing to a song, Hunk playing with his plastic cooking set, Pidge nodding off next to Allura, and Shiro singing along to his music box. “But none of Keith.”

The yellow paladin hummed in acknowledgment and went back to tinkering. “Yeah, That’s true. But Keith doesn’t like cameras.” He said.

The blue paladin frowned, taking back the picture book. “Why not??” He grumbled as he flipped through several more pages, looking at all the memories on them.

Hunk shrugged. “I dunno. He just doesn’t.”

When they first brought up the idea of keeping a scrapbook to document memories of them being little, Keith flat out told them he didn’t like his picture being taken. He was the only one who didn’t, so he was the only one who had been excluded from the book.

But to Lance, not having all the paladins in it made the book look bland.

“I don’t care if he doesn’t like pictures. We need at least one in here.” The younger teen decided. All he wanted was one and he’d be happy.

Hunk snorted. “Good luck.”

*****

The next time Keith went into his little space, Lance set his plan into motion.

His first attempt was fairly simple: catch Keith in the midst of an activity and snap a picture without him noticing. Easy.

Not easy.

Keith was sitting on the couch in the common room, playing with his stuffed lion, one of his favorite toys. Like always, his pacifier was in his mouth as a comfort object, so his current caregiver (Shiro) didn’t need to be giving him constant attention. Because of this, Shiro was on the other side of the room, working on something and not paying too close attention to the little.

Which left a perfect opportunity for Lance to execute his plan.

The blue paladin sat on the couch opposite Keith and hiked up his legs, providing him something to hide the camera behind. He then pulled out the device and turned off the flash, so the light wouldn’t alert the baby to the fact that his picture was being taken. He sat still for a few minutes, watching the raven-haired boy play by himself while he let him get used to his presence.

Once Keith seemed to be entirely entranced in his game, Lance turned the camera on him and waited for the image to focus. His finger hovered over the button, waiting to press down as soon as the picture cleared.

Almost immediately, Keith looked up at Lance, then down at the camera. A deep frown pulled at his lips and he began to nurse on his pacifier, obviously upset that his friend was attempting to get away with something he didn’t like. Before the brunette could take a picture (because he would settle for a pic of a grumpy-looking Keith, it wasn’t like it would be an oddball among the rest of the scrapbook) the boy raised his plushie to cover his face, ruining any chance of his friend salvaging the moment.

Lance attempted to coax him out from behind the stuffed animal. “Awww, you don’t wanna smile for the camera?” He cooed in a low voice, trying not to alert Shiro. If the man caught on, he would probably get his camera privileges revoked for the rest of the week.

Keith shook his head, still hiding behind his lion.

The teen faked a pout, trying to appeal to the baby’s emotions. “Why not? It makes me sad that you don’t wanna say hi.” He whined.

Unaffected, Keith shook his head again. “No!” He argued, not letting himself be tricked by mind games.

That obviously caught Shiro’s attention. The man looked up from his data tablet and gazed over at the two on the couch. Before he could see the camera, Lance shoved it in his pocket.

Even if Shiro didn’t see the camera, he still saw Keith hiding his face from Lance with his lion and the way he was suckling on his pacifier to calm himself.

“You two alright?” The black paladin asked, eyeing the blue paladin with an air of suspicion. Keith had been perfectly calm before he came in, and with Lance’s track record of intentionally or unintentionally upsetting him while he was little, his suspicion was fairly justified.

Lance nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! Everything’s fine.” He assured. “Keith was just letting me say hi to Red, right buddy?” The blue paladin prompted, making up a lie to distract the caregiver from what really happened. If he let Keith explain what happened- even with him being practically nonverbal while little- he would manage to tell Shiro what he’d really been doing.

He wasn’t about to let that happen.

Keith frowned at him even more, but he lowered his lion away from his face. As if by a miracle, he didn’t shake his head to alert his caregiver that Lance was making that up. Instead, he turned to Shiro and held his arms out to him, asking to be picked up.

The black paladin continued to give Lance suspicious looks, but he let the issue go in favor of giving Keith what he wanted. He put his data tablet down and stood, walking over to the baby and lifting him into his arms.

Keith laid his head down on Shiro’s shoulder and relaxed. “Mama.” He said.

Shiro looked down at him. “What’s up? Do you wanna go see what mama’s doing?” He asked. Keith nodded, so the man grabbed his tablet and turned to leave to find Allura.

The boy gazed over his caregiver’s shoulder as he was carried out of the room, staring Lance in the eye.

Lance was sure he would be sticking his tongue out if there wasn’t a pacifier in his mouth.

*****

For Lance’s second attempt, he waited until Keith’s nap time. It was no secret that the boy’s awareness was practically nonexistent when he was tired; he was going to use that fact to his advantage.

The brunette found Keith and Allura in one of the more secluded resting areas on the ship- a room commonly used for when one of the littles needed to be somewhere a bit more quiet. The princess had just finished wrapping Keith up in his weighted blanket when Lance walked in, the boy’s eyes already closing as he started to drift off.

The blue paladin smirked. Perfect.

He sat down on the floor a few feet in front of the couch where Keith was bundled up and pulled out the camera again.

Before he could even set up to take a picture Allura was breathing down his neck. “What are you doing?” She questioned, keeping her voice low as to not disturb the baby resting just a few feet away.

Lance turned the camera on. “Taking a picture of Keith for the scrapbook.” He replied simply.

Allura frowned at that. “He doesn’t like his picture being taken.” She pointed out.

The teen hummed and pointed and camera at Keith. “I know, but I want him to at least have one in the book with us. Besides, he’s almost asleep, he won’t even know.” He reasoned, waiting for the image on the camera’s screen to clear.

The princess was quiet for a moment before she sighed. “Alright, one photo.” She reluctantly agreed, figuring it was alright as long as he didn’t disturb the boy.

Lance smiled. “Gotcha.” He replied as the image finally cleared, leaving a nicely angled picture of Keith sleeping on a couch, bundled in his black weighted blanket with his favorite stuffed lion barely in view. The brunette went to press the camera’s button, but he paused.

While the photo was cute, it wouldn’t do if this was going to be the only picture he could get of Keith. He would rather at least have the baby’s eyes open in the image, so he could capture the childlike shine they held that big Keith’s eyes never did.

“Hey Allura, could you get him to look at me?” Lance asked. “I want him to look at the camera.”

“No! Absolutely not!” The princess whisper-shouted. “If he sees you taking his picture he’s going to get upset. He needs to sleep.”

Trying to bargain, the blue paladin said, “But imagine how much cuter it’ll be if he’s looking at the lense. It’ll only take a second and then he can go to sleep. You’ll be able to calm him down again afterwards anyways. Keith’s a mama’s boy.” Allura was very good at calming him down from a fuss, so Lance wasn’t very worried about upsetting the boy too much. It would be worth the photo.

Allura worried her lip, contemplating going along with the plan. “But…”

“Please?” Lance pleaded.

After a moment of debate, the princess sighed again in defeat. “Alright. But if he’s already asleep I’m not waking him up.” She conditioned.

Lance was beaming. “Sounds good.”

With another sigh, Allura crouched down next to the blue paladin so she was as close to the camera as possible. Then, in a gentle coo she usually used with Keith, she asked, “Keith, sweetie, can you look at mama?”

Almost immediately, the boy looked to her with tired, half lidded eyes. Before he could realize what was happening, Lance snapped a photo of him and saved it to the chip.

Keith laid still for a moment, processing what just happened. He was probably struggling to keep up with how he was half-asleep. However, once he realized that Lance just took his picture, his reaction was instantaneous.

The baby scrunched up his face and wailed. “No!” He cried, pulling his pillow out from under his head and covering his face with it like it would erase what his friend had done. “No! No no no!” He sobbed.

Allura clicked her tongue as she stood to go comfort him, frustrated that Lance’s shenanigans had upset Keith so badly, and partially angry at herself for helping him go through with it. She sat down next to the crying baby and gently pulled the pillow from his grasp, then lifted him into her lap, still wrapped up in his blanket.

Keith only wailed, hot tears streaming down his cheeks. “No! Mama no!” The boy squirmed in her lap, trying to hide his face in her chest.

The woman softly shushed him and gently unwrapped him from the blanket, instead laying it over him and covering him from head to toe with it. Unfortunately, it did little to calm the distressed child and he continued to cry, even as his caregiver wrapped him in her arms and began to rock him back and forth.

Lance watched the scene from his place on the floor, unable to not feel more than a little guilty for Keith’s meltdown. He really didn’t expect the guy to get so emotional over a photo. (But then again he was a tired and emotionally vulnerable little at the moment, what else could he expect?)

He looked down at the shot of his friend, which was perfect. He’d captured the moment right before Keith started to cry, giving his eyes a bit more shine than usual and making the image look even better. The brunette felt like he should be happy he got such a good picture, but he was too busy feeling guilty because he’d made his teammate sob just for this.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Allura began talking. “It’s alright love, Lance didn’t mean to upset you. He’s sorry, and he’s going to delete that picture of you so no one else will see it, okay?” She cooed, pointedly staring at the offending teen while she soothed the baby still crying in her lap.

Lance didn’t object to being told to delete the photo. It really wasn’t worth keeping anyway, since it would just remind them of a not-so-happy memory. That wouldn’t be a good image for a scrapbook.

He deleted the picture. “All gone.” He said as he stood and walked over to the couch in case Keith would want proof it was gone.

Allura nodded her approval and dropped the glare she’d had. Looking down to Keith’s covered figure, she cooed, “The picture’s all gone sweetheart. Do you wanna see?”

The boy shook his head and shrieked. “No!” He hid even further into her, not wanting to leave the cocoon of the blanket and his mama’s body.

“Okay baby, you don’t have to. Mama isn’t going to make you.” The princess shushed sweetly.

Finally, Keith started to calm down, his wails being reduced to sniffles in a matter of minutes. He still refused to come out from under the blanket though, wanting to stay cuddled up against Allura where he felt safe and secure.

Allura sighed. “I have to get him to sleep now. You should go.” She said to Lance as she looked up at the teen.

The blue paladin nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry I upset him so much. Could you tell him for me?” He asked, fiddling with the camera in his hands guiltily.

“You can tell him yourself after he’s had a nap.” The princess said.

Lance hummed. That was fair enough.

***

After his second failure, Lance was much more careful in his attempts to get a picture of Keith. No trying to sneak one in when he was tired. Also, negotiating with the little was not going to work.

Unfortunately, the blue paladin couldn’t find a good opportunity for another day or so. He was busy with training and chores and when he wasn’t, Keith was either tired, napping or too aware to not notice him sneaking around with a camera.

But then on the second day, he happened to walk in on Keith and Shiro having a tickle fight. The two were rolling around on the floor, taking jabs at each other’s sides and stomachs and anywhere else they could reach to win. It was obvious Shiro was winning with the way Keith was shrieking with laughter, barely able to breathe and counter his caregiver’s attacks.

A smirk slowly grew on Lance’s face. This would make a perfect photo.

Being as discreet as possible, the teen pulled the camera- which he’d been keeping on his person in case something like this happened- out of his pocket and turned it on. He then crouched down in the doorway and held up the camera, zooming in on the two roughhousing on the floor.

The image cleared and Lance shifted around slightly for a better angle, then waited for the perfect moment.

Shiro rolled over Keith, pining the boy’s arms to the ground with his knees and leaving the baby’s stomach completely unguarded. Keith pulled his legs up to try to shield his belly, but Shiro attacked it before he could, shoving his legs down again for more access.

Keith squealed and wriggled fruitlessly, a wide grin splitting his cheeks as he attempted to get away from the fingers tormenting his stomach.

Lance pressed the button and snapped a picture of that moment. He looked at the final product with his own splitting grin; it was perfect.

He couldn’t wait to put this in the scrapbook.

Neither of the two that were playing noticed him, so he carefully backed out of the room as to not disturb them. Then, once he was out of sight, he booked it to his room.

Once he got to his destination, he grabbed the scrapbook from his side table and opened it to the first open spot. Taking the photo of Keith and Shiro playing, he slipped it into the space alongside other similar pictures and smiled.

Now Keith had a place in the scrapbook. 


End file.
